Stricker Store

Stricker Store. . The waters of Rock Creek and the grass that grew along its banks provided a welcome oasis for travelers traversing the arid Snake River Plain. This combination caused the area to become a favorite camping site for Oregon Trail emigrants and a crossroads during the development of nineteenth century roads. , In 1864, Ben Holladay chose this site for a home station on his Overland State Line. , The U.S. Army established Camp Reed near here in 1865 to protect travelers, and James Bascom built the Rock Creek Store. The store soon became a popular stopping place for emigrants, freighters, miners and cowboys. On August 31, 1888, Sarah Hall Pullman noted, "this Rock Creek Store is a great blessing to the emigrants.... So as they can get a Sack of flour for themselves, and something to feed their starving teams on...." , In 1876 Herman Stricker purchased the store and remained the proprietor until it closed in 1897. One of the cellars behind the store served as the first jail for the area. In 1878 Chief Buffalo Horn and his followers camped in the vicinity only days before the start of the Bannock Indian War. Stricker and his wife, Lucy, built the house just east of the store in 1900. It replaced one destroyed by fire the previous year. A small cemetery nearby contains the graves of three emigrants.